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A Note About Colour On Webpages

Some people have berated me for wanting to use colour on my website. As far as I can understand it (and if someone wants to elaborate to me, fine), the argument is that the web is for disseminating information, not cluttering it up with fancy designs and such. This is an argument for sensible use of colour, not no use of colour. It's also a slightly dubious assertion; it may be what the web started as; it may be what the web should be; it may even be what the web is best at. However, it is demonstrably not what the web actually is (unless you take 'information' in its loosest possible context and actually include online shopping and such. I don't).

Another argument runs thus: What if you set your browser's default background to blue, and then go to a webpage only to find that some fool has set their text to blue? The page would be invisible! My answer to this: Don't try to impose your view on the world, and accept that people want things to be displayed differently. If you can't do this, then at least make sure you set your own default text colour as well!

Obviously, people must select colour carefully; to take account of colourblindness or people using greyscale machines, etc. But to say that 'colour is bad' is just plain wrong, in my opinion.

Here endeth the rant.